


replacement facts

by en passant (corinthian)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-01
Updated: 2015-06-01
Packaged: 2018-04-02 09:06:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4054384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corinthian/pseuds/en%20passant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>10 facts and 1 wish.</p>
<p>The life and times of Jack. PsuedoKingCrab if you're looking for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	replacement facts

**1\. He hadn't always been alone.**

It was in fact, it was _a fact_ that all children had to come from somewhere. All children had parents, even if those parents were dead. It was just that he didn't have any idea of what came before "not always." His shoes must not have always been dirty, his shirt must have been new at one point in time. If he looked across the water to the city, he figured, he could have even once lived there.

**2\. Nothing was free.**

That much, at least, everyone knew. Jack didn't believe in stealing, but he also didn't believe in handouts. Barters, deals, _earning_. That's what the world dealt in. People worked for anything and everything. Even scavenging required _effort._

**3\. How people see you matters.**

He realized it, the first time, when he got a new sweatshirt. It had been white, absolutely _spotless_. It was his first present from Martha and he'd snatched it from her and scowled and thought she might take it away. But she'd only laughed and told him he'd earned it for being such a good help around the house and he knew she'd never kick him out, then.

He'd taken care of that sweatshirt, kept it clean, took it off when he did anything dirty. Then he'd gotten the shit kicked out of him down the street and the worst part hadn't even been his bloody nose or swollen knuckles it had been when he looked at his reflection all he saw was the dirt on his clothes. 

(When he's King, when he's Jack Atlas, they'll remember his white coat and his white D-Wheel and everything about his immaculate presentation and think he's untouchable.)

**4\. Yuusei is missing something.**

Honestly, they both drive him crazy -- Yuusei and Crow. Jack can't stand either of them at first. _He_ was the first one Martha had let in (never minding the other kids already there), it wasn't fair for _newcomers_ to take over his space. Crow's clever and noisy and doesn't need a ladder to climb bunk beds and Jack has already thrown him off the top bunk like four times but somehow he's less irritating than Yuusei.

Yuusei who just sits on the floor with his legs crossed and watches them with a shuttered pathetic expression and Jack really just wants to punch him in the face. So that's when they start having challenges. Jack takes the first one, says they've got to race around the house and whoever wins gets the top bunk. Of course he wins, because he's taller and faster but it's the first time he sees Yuusei even try. Crow takes the second one, they've got to climb the tree behind Martha's house and Jack refuses to do it, so it's just Yuusei and Crow and Yuusei gives up on the third branch up.

Aren't you even going to try? Jack's pissed, of course he is.

But Yuusei smiles -- Jack thinks it might be the first time he's seen it -- and reaches down, offers him a hand up. Jack refuses to take it. Crow wins that round and sleeps in the top bunk that night.

**5\. Satellite is rotten.**

He hates it. It makes his skin crawl. The buildings are infected, the roads are infected, the people are infected. It corrupts and it's breaking and he needs to get out.

(Truthfully, he doesn't buy Kiryuu's bullshit. But Jack sees an opportunity and he isn't going to let it pass him by.)

(And, isn't it nice to believe, for once?)

**6\. The title of King is heavy.**

Jack grew up on the idea of responsibility. The propaganda is everywhere, and even though everyone knows it's empty, the ideas sound good. Those in power will take care of you. Those in power will show you respect. Those in power can give you opportunity.

The idea is appealing. Jack knows a bit about it, too. Even kids know that the leader can offer them something, even the duel gangs know that power affords something _more_.

He's prepared, he's always been prepared, to carry that burden.

**7\. Desire is harder than duty.**

There's a point where it gets tangled. Jack isn't sure when it happened. It might have been between taking _on_ a name that wasn't his and _making_ it his. Or it might have been when he realized he was waiting for home to come and meet him halfway, to cross the waters and bring him what he'd left behind.

(Maybe, it had been when he decided to throw away the world for a chance to make her happy.)

**8\. Time keeps moving, even if you're content.**

He'd been so sure that at ten he was done growing. They'd all started to settle down into their roles. They had a home and they had each other. They had even begun to dream a little.

At fifteen, they'd had a team.

At eighteen, he had been on top of the world. And only a handful of months later, Yuusei had brought him back down again.

At twenty-three, the idea of an undefeated king had been laid to rest, fully laid to rest. Jack had embraced the idea of constant challenge. He traveled. Carly traveled with him. They grew together and grew apart. She's still the first contact in his phone.

And then, he realizes, when a letter that's been forwarded from address to address to address finally bounces back to him -- he hasn't seen Yuusei in seven years.

**9\. He can be, at times, indelicate.**

It's Carly who tells him that he can be too emotional sometimes, and she lightly and jokingly, mentions the kitchen table he accidentally broke -- and then shoddily repaired -- in their first shared apartment. And how Misty hates that table but accepts that Carly brought it with her.

And it's Crow, who in passing after a -- Have you spoken to Yuusei recently? -- shakes his head and laughs and says, "Really, the two of you." As if Jack and Yuusei are in the same category when it comes to feelings.

(Of course, too, there's the shadow of a memory of Godwin patting him on the shoulder. Your singular drive is something I admire.)

**10\. The future was his.**

Even if he had to create his own path, brick by brick.

* * *

**1.**

(He returns home, to Neo Domino, then back tracks to Zora's house and then where Satellite once was, now simply another neighborhood. He finds the house Martha used to own, that had been sold and resold -- she and the kids living with her had moved on to a nicer area, close to a better school.

The old tree is still there, even larger than it had been in his memory. Jack thinks, just for a moment, he might see Yuusei sitting on the lower branches offering him a hand. But he banishes the thought with a snort, a laugh. Nostalgia and missed moments will only take him so far.

He'll head back into Domino with a challenge on his tongue. That's the difference between them anyway. Yuusei always waits, but Jack _chooses_.)


End file.
